Beware the guru's "friends"

[Mirinda Lowe]

There's a certain guru who also has a wholesaling posting website, and one of their areas is in LA. I get the wholesale posting emails, because well, I'll take deals from all sources I can. But I clearly have in my preferences to not get other solicitations. Sometimes I still do, no big deal, I just delete. But recently one came across that I just had to click on. Because he "wanted to share with me other great money making deals", he was passing along a great penny stock investor.

This penny stock newsletter is touting the possibility of 1150% returns. Since I also still believe in Santa Clause and the Tooth Fairy, well, I have to check this out. Turns out it's a classic 'pump & dump' newsletter. For those of you who don't know what that is, they basically get some form of compensation from the companies they're telling you to buy (in conjunction with a lot of other newsletter at the same time) so they can drive the stock price up and insiders can sell quickly while the price is going up. Illegal, yes; but they can exist for a long time, sometimes forever, without getting caught.

If you dig deep enough into their site, you'll find, in words you have to really interpret, they even tell you they receive compensation from these companies - so they've warned you. Dig even deeper and you'll find that if our guru gets you to sign up, he gets almost all of the $97 you pay to subscribe.

So much for my selfless friend who just wants to share great deals with me.

Beware the guru's "friends".